Thursday, July 30, 2009

A work buddy is seeing a physio for knee issues. She is experiencing pain in various areas of the knee and my situation surely increased her paranoïa. Her physio is reminding her to question whether it's real pain or fear pain. How smart.

The yoga is highlighting some of Mireille's own fear pain. Currently, the most challenging asana by far is Child's pose. I can't quite bend to the point where Mireille is sitting on her heels. I also feel a sharp pain when being bent and pulled in towards the chest. So much for full flexion.

However, during tonight's practice, I noticed that I felt bendier the more Mireille cleared her mind, relaxed and breathed through it.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

My physiotherapist is off on vacation for two weeks and, judging from tonight's performance, I don't need to see a replacement while he's gone. That will be very strange because I've been going there regularly for almost a year now. It's my social outing... my opportunity to meet and chat with other busted, reconstructed or don't-know-what's-wrong-with-it-yet knees.

I will replace the physio appointments with additional gym workouts and see how that goes. Hopefully, if all goes well, the appointments will become even more far between.

Mireille is still dealing with mental blocks when it comes to running and jumping properly. We've started practising these in the pool and perfecting the motions.

I bet you thought I was the hard one to train, huh? Mireille's paranoid brain is going to be the biggest challenge.

We really liked taking baths in the first place so this was the perfect excuse for taking them every single day.

"You're using a ton of water..." How about you bust your knee and stand in the shower?

"It's been months, why are you still exclusively taking baths?" Hey, we really like baths.

"It takes you forever..." I must admit, this is true.

And, with that, I'll finish by saying Mireille really appreciated how efficient the morning routine was when we didn't have to wait for the tub to fill up, pour a bucket of water on Mireille's head ten times to get all the shampoo out and rush through breakfast to make it to work at a decent time.

Monday, July 6, 2009

The injury happened about 3 weeks before the European honeymoon. Cancelling was not an option.

We endured the cramping of a 10 hour plane ride to another continent. Climbed up to the Acropolis in Athens and walked the mile-long fortified wall that surrounds the old town core of Dubrovnik -- all with the help of handy-dandy crutches.

There was no stopping us. The crutches even followed us onto the black beaches of Santorini. I can still shake sand out of them...

It was sometimes hard not to trip people as we made our way through the hordes of tourists. But that's a story for another day.

Mireille can't really complain because she got prime seating in Rome's famous Sistine Chapel and one of very few chairs in the House of the Virgin Mary on the way to Ephesus, Turkey.

It's in this House, or small chapel, that I got approached by the nun.

"Can I give you this?", she said. Of course! Who doesn't like gifts?

It was a small pendant of none other than the Virgin Mary. Mireille considers herself to be a very spiritual person, and although she doesn't actively participate in organized religion, she thought it was a sweet gesture.

She immediately began wearing it and never took it off for about 11 months. The only time it left her neck was on surgery day. It was with us during a lot of rough moments.

But this past week, it was put away for good. It's time to let go of the crutches -- the handy-dandy but cumbersome ones, and the simple but powerful ones.

About this blog...

I (Mireille) am creating this blog primarily to capture, remember and share my experience with ACL reconstruction. It will be written from the perspective of my left knee because, quite frankly, for the past several months, my life has been all about this injured knee. It only seems appropriate to make it the star of the show...